DUBIE DO
One Senate seat that may be coming back into play for Republicans
in the 2006 election cycle is Vermont, where Sen. Jim
Jeffords is retiring. Word on Capitol Hill is that Vermont
Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie was in town last week,
meeting with Republican National Committee staff, as well as Sen.
Elizabeth Dole, who chairs the National Republican
Senatorial Committee, the key recruiter for Senate candidates.
Dubie would be a superior candidate to the Republican currently
in the field, millionaire Richard Tarrant. Gov.
Jim Douglas had earlier this year looked at the
open seat, which is being also being pursued by socialist
congressman, Rep. Bernie Sanders.
While Dubie doesn’t bring the deep pockets of Tarrant, he does
possess an electability factor that Tarrant does not, which will be
important in a race against Sanders, who is virulently anti-Bush
Administration, particularly on tax policy issues and Iraq.
Dubie is already on record of late saying the he believed the
overall approach in Iraq was flawed, putting him in more in sync
with Vermont voters.
TAX HOLD
Word is spreading through K Street corridors that any major tax
legislation won’t move out of the House until early 2007, and that
most likely would be a major tax omnibus bill. Some lobbyists have
been meeting with House Ways and Means staff pressing for some tax
legislation either later this year or early 2006, but given the
current ardor for relief aid, and the growing call by fiscal
conservatives to trim back spending, most Ways and Means folks
think it’s politically impossible for them to do anything on the
tax front for at least 18 months.
RUMORS, RUMORS, EVERYWHERE
And no facts in sight.
Busy day yesterday in SCOTUS-land. Not for soon-to-be-Chief
Justice Roberts, but the person whose fanny will fill the O’C
seat.
Here’s what we’re hearing. Alberto Gonzales is
still very much in play. As reported here earlier, he was in
Florida yesterday for a speech before police chiefs. During a Q
& A session that followed, his comments about his admiration
for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist could
be perceived as either pandering of the first order, or generous
humility. People we speak to, who work and have worked for
Gonzales, say he really has no burning desire to be on the court,
not in the same way others have. But if asked, he probably wouldn’t
turn it down.
In that regard, a White House source says that one of the
arguments put forward for Gonzales as a nominee is that people who
really know him (the President, Karl
Rove), know him to be a reliable conservative who would be
less likely to go wobbly in the crunch. That sounds fine, but who
knows? Certainly not the base.
As for other nominees, the list appears to be dwindling.
According to Capitol Hill sources, a list of potential nominees
that was floated late last week had five names: Edith
Hollan Jones, Emilio Garza, Alice
Batchelder, Karen Williams, and
Michael Luttig.
The name to focus on is Williams, who currently sits on the 4th
District bench. In the past 24 hours, her name appears to have
taken on the same kind of airborne quality as that of Larry
Thompson’s two weeks ago. It may be lifting off because of real
momentum or just hot air.
Williams is known to be reliably grounded, bright and
talented.
Either way, this is the parlor game of the moment in
Washington.
